Spinning Hot Air — Illusionist John Kerry Did His Soothing Warm Blather Dance — with the Coldly Pithy Climate Scientist, James Hansen

15 December 2015

If it comes out of an American politician’s mouth, it is almost always certifiably untrue or misleading

The recently achieved Paris Agreement on climate change met some criticism from the scientist who first drew publicized attention to the problem of global warming, NASA’s retired (physics PhD) James Hansen:

“It’s a fraud really, a fake,” he says, rubbing his head.

“It’s just bullshit for them to say: ‘We’ll have a 2C warming target and then try to do a little better every five years.’ It’s just worthless words. There is no action, just promises. As long as fossil fuels appear to be the cheapest fuels out there, they will be continued to be burned.”

[A]ccording to Hansen, the international jamboree is pointless unless greenhouse gas emissions are taxed across the board. He argues that only this will force down emissions quickly enough to avoid the worst ravages of climate change.

U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, responded optimistically

Saying that:

I have great respect for Jim Hansen and I was there in 1988 when he first warned everybody climate change was happening.

But with all due respect to him, I understand the criticisms of the agreement because it doesn't have a mandatory scheme and it doesn't have a compliance enforcement mechanism. That's true.

But we have 186 countries, for the first time in history, all submitting independent plans that they have laid down, which are real, for reducing emissions.

And what it does, in my judgment, more than anything else, there is a uniform standard of transparency. And therefore, we will know what everybody is doing.

The result will be a very clear signal to the marketplace of the world that people are moving into low carbon, no carbon, alternative renewable energy. And I think it's going to create millions of jobs, enormous new investment in R&D, and that R&D is going to produce the solutions, not government.

Thus, according to Secretary Kerry

Not only will the agreement work, but it will make for a fabulous new economy that:

(a) will miraculously get Big Government out of our lives

(b) (implicitly) via the much heralded Democratic candidacy of (presumably) Hillary Clinton

and

Optimism out the wazoo

When interviewer George Stephanopoulos threw in a follow up (stick-in-the-eyeball) question:

This is . . . not legally binding, in part, because the U.S. couldn't get a treaty through the Senate. And the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has also weighed in quite strongly already . . . .

So can this deal actually be implemented absent a consensus in the United States?

[Secretary Kerry continued his Warm Blather Dance:]

Well, there is a consensus in the United States among the American people and among mayors across the nation . . . .

And the fact is, the United States of America has already reduced its emissions more than any other country in the world.

And the president has made it very, very clear that he's committed to this and this agreement really came about significantly due to American leadership, with President Obama engaging with China, coming to an agreement with the two largest economies, the two largest emitters, saying they were going to join together to put out their reductions.

And that spurred 184 other countries to step up.

So this is significant.

I think, frankly, a lot of members of Congress are on the wrong side of history.

And I don't believe you can be elected president of the United States if you don't understand climate change or you're not committed to this kind of a plan.

Or paraphrased:

And thus, Pipsqueak George (my friend) — with a wave of my magic wand — I sweep Reality and all your negativism away.

The moral? — Like angels, we dance in throngs atop the heads of invisibly small pins

There is (apparently) no problem so vastly urgent that our leaders cannot blither a way around it.

Dr. Hansen’s summation of the process is apt.

PeteFree.com

Spinning Hot Air — Illusionist John Kerry Did His Soothing Warm Blather Dance — with the Coldly Pithy Climate Scientist, James Hansen